. >> and then larry, later in the afternoon, our steve leishman sat down with treasury secretary tim geithner. geithner in that interview late in the afternoon made it clear that this is brinksmanship of the highest order. >> i want to understand the administration's position when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy. those making more than $250,000. if republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> oh, absolutely. there's no prospect for an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthy. it's only 2%. >> reporter: of course, up on capitol hill, republicans don't necessarily agree with that. speaker of the house john boehner said today that he is still waiting for a counterproposal now from the president of the united states. and we learned late this afternoon that in fact speaker boehner and president obama had a phone call today. we don't know, however, what was said in that call. but reports are that some progress is being made in these negotiations. at least conversations continuing behind the